Posts by JamesL

  • Eye Pet

    Initially concepts for activities, then once concept approval is gained, detailed system design for prototyping by the code team.

    Once prototypes are up and running, several iterations of testing & feedback until the prototype is either approved for inclusion in the game or scrapped.

    I'm generally working on several prototypes at a time.

    I'd be more specific, but NDA n all that ...

    My portfolio is a bit out of date and unfinished really, I guess it gives the impression that I am only a level designer, which is not the case.

    I should put some more work into it, but I am happy with my job right now and busy playing an MMO in my spare time so ...

  • Eye Pet

    Nope Sony London, though I live about 10 mins walk from Zoe Mode :roll:

    Cheers Frei vid here:

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    Best comment so far on the youtube thread

    "....that has been rendered onto the stream afterwards. even the ps3 cant react to an orange rolling that fast. if that was possible, you could build awesome robots right now. "

    Priceless ...

  • Eye Pet

    Leipzig Eurogamer blog...

    And thus the game I am currently working on is announced, not quite in the same vein as 8 Days is it.

    Go Go Monkey Dog Thing.

  • [WiP] de_boston CS:S

    You need some decals for the road markings, some stop signs and traffic lights. (No idea why am on a highway tip...)

    Other than that it's just detail you need adding to the scene. Dirt, light & shadow, the inevitable graffiti here and there. sIgns, sign posts, trash cans, railings, porch lights, house nameplates, all that kinda junk.

    Looking promising mate keep up the work

  • WoW is 500x better when you're dead.

    One reason I always preferred GuildWars over WoW was the way you could slap on the right set of skills and run around pretty much the entire world without ever doing more than a couple of the main storyline missions. There are actually few physical barriers between the different areas of the game. I always found running myself and taxi-ing other people about the world and checking out all the environments as much fun as any of the actual missions.

  • Where are all the Level Designers?

    I think he's wrong Frie. As you state in your post, that comment is probably more of a reflection on his own outlook on life and perhaps, given the hours you said he worked, a degree of burnout and disillusion.

    I fondly remember games from the past just as strongly as I do old songs or movies. The love I have for Star Wars having watched it as a kid in the late 70's is matched to the exact same degree as the memories I have of playing Elite on the BBC model B, Dungeon Master on the Atari ST or Counter Strike for the first time. I will never forget these games and I think many other people feel the same way about games they grew up with.

    In many respects I believe that the games we have made, and continue to make are if anything, more important than products of other media industries. Interactive entertainment is still very much in its infancy, and our generation are the trail blazers.

  • Flagship is going bust!?

    I don't see how they can drop the servers. The game is still out there on the shelves and people are still playing it, so shutting the servers is not really likely to be an option for the immediate future. It's all going to become a bit lawless in there for a while now I expect.

    A friend of mine who still plays it said the servers appear to have been swamped with botters trying to sell gold/items. I guess no one is administrating the game right now ...

  • Where are all the Level Designers?

    I'm a bit late to the thread but I think it's a very interesting question.

    In the seven and a half years I've worked in games dev, most of the designers I know have come through one of a few routes. These are:

    • [*:19gn4xzg]Designers who have a computer science or equivalent degree, who wanted to work in a games development environment but didn't want to code.
      [*:19gn4xzg]Testers who paid their dues in QA then, having showed some aptitude for it, got into junior levels of design and worked their way up.
      [*:19gn4xzg]Graphic designers, product designers architects or CAD operators, who after qualifying, or working in their respective industries for a while, decided to move into games. Usually because it was a hobby in the first place.

    At a guess I should say over 90% of designers I have worked with come from one of these backgrounds.

    As for why these people don't post, a quick poll of the people around me here in the office gives a fairly telling answer.

    "I get enough of it at work, I don't want to read forums about it too."

    I guess we are in a minority. My take on it is that the people who work in the industry and have done for a while, but who still make maps outside of work and are involved in games related projects in their free time as well as professionally, these people (us) are the hardcore. We all have a little bit of the obsessive in us.

  • Diablo 3

    Not necessarily. GuildWars and Hellgate both used similar systems and there is plenty of trade in those games.

    Personally I far prefer drops being reserved for each party member. Memories of Stormshields, Ist runes, Tal's armour etc dropping in front of me and being nabbed by someone else are just to painful to re-visit in the next version of the game.

  • Diablo 3

    Quote from DvS

    They could've pulled a bethesda on you and made it first person, so count your lucky stars

    That wouldn't have stopped me from playing it, but I am hella glad they didn't.

    I agree with Minos, the website is ace. Tyreal in the background with his glowing wings looks awesome!

    Anyone come across a release date yet? I couldn't see one on the page (though I didn't look too hard ..).

  • Diablo 3

    Fives runes on the floor, all start glowing together and then boom Diablo appears! It's straight out of the game

    If they don't announce it today I think I may just be inclined to pop down into town to Gamestation and trash all their other Blizzard products.